This episode is presented by eBay.

Rob, everyone loves a deal and a bargain from time to time, don't they? Absolutely, mate. And you know where you can grab a great deal? Talk to me. Where? The eBay app. Yes, you are correct. You didn't need to talk to me. I already knew it. I love eBay. When you're buying, you can discover loads of hidden gems. there's so many items where you think I would have never found that anywhere else.

Then when you're buying, you can discover loads of hidden gems. There's so many items where you think I would have never found that anywhere else. Then when you're selling, it's so simple and most

importantly, free. It's free, Rob. When it's this easy to sell for free and there's great

deals on things you love. You can't help but say when it's eBay. It excludes vehicles and business

sellers.

Welcome to Science Talk, the weekly podcast of Scientific American for the seven days starting November 19th, 2008. I'm Steve Merski. This week we'll hear from a couple of veterinarians who

deal with animals a bit more exotic than the family pet. Jeffrey Bohm runs the Marine Mammal Center in Sossolito, California, and Alyssa

Harley-Newton is a pathologist with the Wildlife Conservation Society's global health program.

Plus, we'll test your knowledge about some recent science in the news.

Jeffrey Bome recently became the executive director of the Marine Mammal Center, which will be featured on an episode of Nova that airs November 25th.

He spent 16 years at the Shed Aquarium in Chicago, where he was senior vice president of animal health and conservation science.

Boehm was passing through New York this week and dropped by Scientific American.

Dr. Boam, great to talk to you today.

Well, it's excellent to be here, Steve.

Tell me about the Marine Mammal Center. What is it? What do you do?

The Marine Mammal Center is, in basic terms, a hospital for distress, sick, injured, seals

and sea lions along the Central California coast. And there are tons of them?

Well, there are plenty.

We have typically 600 or so patients a year.

A high water mark, if you will, is about 1,200 patients that we saw one year back in 1998.

But year in, year out, we're seeing patients coming in from the, literally year round, but we start to see an influx in the late winter months, early spring months, all throughout the summer, starting to decline a little bit come fall.

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